Brazil's
Embraer expects to sell its Super Tucano light attack aircraft to more
NATO nations after clinching an order from the United States that lifted
the company into the upper echelons of global defense contractors, a top
executive told Reuters.

Brazilian Super
Tucano light attack aircraft

Buoyed
by the U.S. endorsement, Embraer's defense unit could make up a quarter
of its revenue by 2020, Aguiar said, up from an estimated 14 percent last
year and under 5 percent in 2006.

The unit promises
steady growth with Brazil's armed forces as the country bolsters protection
of its vast borders and far-flung offshore oil reserves, reducing Embraer's
reliance on highly cyclical revenue from civil aviation.

But as Embraer's
defense ambitions grow in foreign countries, it also faces more politically
charged competition.

The U.S. Air
Force halted the $355 million Super Tucano order last week due to a lawsuit
from losing bidder Hawker-Beechcraft , of Kansas, stirring nationalist
rhetoric from local lawmakers and Republican presidential candidate Newt
Gingrich.

Aguiar dismissed
the political risks, confident that a swift decision in courts will free
up Embraer to deliver the Air Force's first Super Tucanos from a new Florida
plant next year.

"Our team
is totally ready. No one was deactivated," said Aguiar. "You
just press the button and we go to work."

The order could
grow to $950 million for 55 aircraft, which are designed for surveillance
and counterinsurgency operations in rugged conditions like the Afghanistan
border.

The U.S. contract
is the first for the Super Tucano in the NATO alliance. An earlier generation
of the plane, known as the Tucano, was used beginning in 1989 for pilot
training in France and the United Kingdom.